"Not much is known about the main battle sequence of The Phantom Menace. Well, it's twenty minutes in length and appears at the end of the film. Leaks about this sequence have been few and far between because only a select few at ILM were picked to work on this sequence . . . It is by far the most complicated battle sequence that has ever been attempted for a motion picture. This sequence will comprise over 250 individual FX shots. It will be quite amazing . . . It's not going to be a great water battle, but it will be a type of battle sequence that has never been done before. It's a battle sequence that George wanted to include in the classic trilogy, but was unable to attempt in the 1980's because of a lack of technology, money, time, etc. . . .

The final cost of this battle sequence will be somewhere between $ 22 to $ 25 million, which will make it one of the most expensive 20 minutes in the history of film or about $ 1,000,000 per minute of screen time when you finally see it on film . . . It's kind of hard to describe. It's almost totally computer generated. The main characters who were involved with this sequence have literally no idea what they were looking at while they filmed their lines . . . This is by far the most important sequence of the film and will remain completely secret until the film comes out next May. This sequence alone is well worth whatever you will have to pay in admission. The wait is almost over." (Source: Anonymous Lucasfilm Informant)